[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING] JOHN: Welcome to Google. CARY ELWES: Thank you. Thank you for having me. JOHN: Yeah. So the movie was
released 27 years ago. CARY ELWES: Yes. JOHN: But I just spent
the entire last week quoting this all through
work with my colleagues and everything. Like, I'm literally quoting
it, and then 20 feet away someone else starts quoting it. CARY ELWES: Right. JOHN: And so, I mean,
it was a huge movie, and it just got
bigger over the years. So this book is amazing,
especially for me as a fan, because reading
it, you learn more about the characters,
the situations, even untold stories, and
just fall in love with the movie all over
again, but in greater detail. CARY ELWES: Thank you. JOHN: So it's amazing. But tell us first
off, what inspired you to write about
your experience on "The Princess Bride?" CARY ELWES: Well, myself
and the rest of the cast always get asked, was it as
much fun to make as it looked? And I always tell
people, it was more fun. So I wanted to write a
love letter-- to the film, to the filmmakers--
because it was such a joyous journey for me. And so I thought,
I'd better write it before my memory starts
to fail me, you know? [LAUGHTER] And so, yeah. So it's a love letter. Yeah. JOHN: Awesome. Awesome. And it all started,
in your book you say it all started with a
note that read "Important." CARY ELWES: That's right. JOHN: Right. So can you tell us a
little bit about that? CARY ELWES: OK. Well, I was filming a little
independent film in Berlin at the time. It was a Finnish-German-British
co-production, which should tell
you how much money we needed to make the film. [LAUGHTER] And it was about the
time of Chernobyl, which was a terrible
nuclear disaster that happened in Russia in 1986. And I'll never forget it. We were filming
outside of Helsinki. We had a German
production manager, and he called a crew meeting. And he said,
[GERMAN ACCENT] I have some good news,
and some bad news. [LAUGHTER] And so we were all
listening very intently. And he goes,
[GERMAN ACCENT] there's been a bit of an accident. And we were thinking, what? The catering truck
broke down or something? [LAUGHTER] And he said, [GERMAN ACCENT]
there's been a bit of a spill. But the good news is
it's 800 miles away, und the wind is blowing
in the other direction. [LAUGHTER] And the bad news is that
we've heard from the farmers that some of the
cows may be affected, so you might not
want to put milk in your coffee for the
next couple of weeks. So, you know, today,
the production probably would have been shut
down for safety purposes. But back then-- luckily no was
injured or affected by it-- but we continued shooting. And I went back to Berlin, and
I got a call from my agent. And the note did
say "Important." So I called her
back and she said, Rob Reiner and his
producing partner Andy Scheinman would like
to fly to Berlin to meet with you to talk to you
about "The Princess Bride." Now, I had read the book when
I was 13, and I loved it. So I knew that a lot of people
had tried to make the film. So I was very excited. I knew Rob Reiner. I knew him from
"All in the Family." And of course a little
film that he did called "This is Spinal Tap." Yeah. And so I didn't know what
I was more excited about, the idea of Meathead or
Marty Dibergi showing up. So I was very excited. And they came to my hotel suite,
and they were just fantastic. I was so overjoyed to meet them. And I ended up doing a
Fat Albert impersonation. I don't know how that came up. I was so nervous. I ended up trying
to make-- I thought, I'll make the director laugh. I'll try and impress
him with how much I know about
American pop culture. And for some reason
I blurted out a Fat Albert impression,
which is rotten. You don't want to hear it. It's dreadful. JOHN: I was going to say, you
don't want to do it again? CARY ELWES: You really
want to hear it? JOHN: I kind of do. [LAUGHTER] CARY ELWES: This
won't play on YouTube. [LAUGHTER] I just went-- hey, hey, hey! Like that. And that did get a
laugh out of Rob. I thought, great. I'm in good shape. That's a good start. JOHN: And you were pretty
young at the time, right? CARY ELWES: I was 23. And then he pulled out
a script out of his bag, and he said, you
know, I just want to hear you say a few lines. So I thought, oh, boy. Here we go. And I read the scene. I read the scene
where Westley explains to Buttercup in the fire swamp
how he became the Dread Pirate Roberts. And I only got through
a couple of lines and Rob held up his hand,
he goes, that's enough. I thought, that's it. It's done. It was a nice meeting
while it lasted. So much for the Fat
Albert impersonation. And he said, you
know, we're meeting a couple of other
actors, and we'll see. We'll let you know. And usually, as an actor, when
you hear that, you're thinking, well, that's it. Right? But fortunately for me, about
four days later my agent called back and she said,
are you sitting down? I went, what? She goes, yeah. I went, no way. And she said, yeah. They like you for the part. And I couldn't believe it. So I said to her, you can go
ahead and forge my signature on the contract, because
you better do it quickly before they change their mind. [LAUGHTER] You know, so yeah. Yeah. JOHN: That's awesome. That's awesome. Now, in this movie, and
with all your movies, you're known for your
amount of preparation. Like, you spend a lot trying
to get ready for these movie, right? And so I just watched
the movie again, and I noticed that
this is actually a pretty physically
demanding movie. The sword fighting scene
alone is really impressive. CARY ELWES: Thank you. JOHN: And you refer to
yourself in the book as not much of an
athlete, though? That's not my words. That's what you said. CARY ELWES: Yes. Those are my words. JOHN: And so, I mean, tell
us about the preparation for this movie. CARY ELWES: Well, yeah. I love preparing for roles. I do. I really do. I think that's half
the fun, actually. For me it's like a continued
education, you know? I've had a very
blessed career, really. A lot of it, all of it,
really, due to this film. And so, you know, I get
to study NASCAR driving, or when I'm playing
an astronaut, I get to study how a command
module works or a LEM, or something like that. And for me, it's so
exciting, the preparation, because I get to
learn about things I never would normally have
the chance to learn about. Of course, these are the
days before Google, folks. You know? This was the days when I
had to go to the library to look stuff up,
early in my career. But now, thanks to
your company, it's made the work of
actors a lot easier. Because you have so much
information at your fingertips nowadays. And so that's wonderful. Yes. For the sword fighting. I am not much of an athlete. I wasn't growing up. And I had very little-- in fact,
little or no fencing training before the movie started. I had gone to acting school,
and they teach you, sort of, very basic stuff, but I
didn't remember any of it. And so one of the
things Rob Reiner said to Mandy and
myself and Chris Guest at the beginning
of the movie, he said, I don't want stunt
guys, or stand-ins, or doubles for the
sword fighting scene. I want you guys. It was a bit
daunting, because it's described as the greatest
sword fight in modern times. [LAUGHTER] OK. And Mandy was like, yeah. Sure. Great. You know? So I was standing next to him,
I'm going, yeah, fine, sure. That sounds great. But fortunately for us, he
hired two of the greatest sword masters available in
England at the time. One of them was
Bob Anderson, who was an Olympic fencer for
Great Britain in the 1950s, and the other was Peter Diamond. And they had both incredible
resumes, these guys. They'd worked with Errol Flynn,
and with Burt Lancaster-- and in fact, Bob Anderson did
all the light saber sequences for the "Star Wars" movie. And Peter Diamond helped
choreograph them with him. And also, Peter was the
Tusken Raider on Tatooine for you Wikipedias out there. Sorry to mention
the other company. But anyway, so we got the
very best of the best. And they were
amazing, these guys. And I'll never forget
the first meeting we had with Bob Anderson. And he said, guys,
I won't lie to you. We don't think we
have enough time to make you proficient
right-handed. Forget left-handed. So we've asked the producers to
move the sword fight sequence to the very end of the film. And we've got a lot
of work ahead of us. So they worked us hard. We worked eight hours a day
before we started shooting. And then once we
started shooting, these guys were off
camera the whole time. So when Rob yelled
cut, they would just grab us, Mandy and I, or
Chris, and go and work on the sequence. And we had to learn each
other's parts as well. Because they said, we
don't want any accidents on the film, and the
best way to avoid that is if you guys learn
each other's parts as well. So we had double the workload. So while the rest the cast
was sitting around and having a good time and
hanging out on the set, Mandy, myself, and Chris were
out there practicing all day. So it was definitely
rigorous, but we got into it and it was fun. JOHN: Did you do the scene where
you roll down the mountain? CARY ELWES: No, that
was a stunt double. JOHN: OK. CARY ELWES: Thank goodness. [LAUGHTER] Yes. Yes. JOHN: Could have been tough. So one character, when we're
talking about the movie characters, that
really also captured everyone's hearts
was Andre the Giant. CARY ELWES: Yes, Andre. JOHN: Tell us about
the first time you met him, and your first
scene with him in the film. CARY ELWES: OK. Well, Andre was really
a beautiful guy. And he always had a
smile on his face. He really was a gentle giant. He would give you the
shirt off his back. There would be enough
for five people. [LAUGHTER] But he would give
it to you willingly. And he was just adorable. He was just-- just a sweet man. And yeah, my first day shooting
with him was quite eventful. I had to shoot the
scene where we're on the parapet of Florin Castle
after Miracle Max's cabin. And I'm mostly
dead, and I come to. And I think Fezzik has a
line where he goes something to the effect of-- and I'm
sure someone could correct me if I'm wrong-- but
something to the effect of, I wonder how long it'll take
before the miracle takes effect. And Montoya says, your
guess is as good as mine. And then I come to, and
I say, I'll fight you both together, I'll
beat you both apart. Something like that. And Andre's line
was, [DEEP VOICE] I guess not very long. Like that, right? Well, he didn't get
to the word "long" before he emitted one of
the most ginormous farts-- [LAUGHTER] --any of us had
ever experienced. And I got to tell you, we've
all experienced giant farts in our lives, you know? I'm sure we've all
pointed the finger. But this was a giant's
fart, the sonic resonance of which was just
truly magnificent. I can't even tell you. And we all grabbed the set. A lot of us thought it was an
earthquake going on, you know? And I looked over
at Andre, and he had-- besides-- I
told you he already had this wonderful
smile-- now he had a smile of blessed relief. [LAUGHTER] It was just like that. And for some reason he had steam
coming out the top of his head. And it was such a
weird combination between this fart
that was going-- it lasted about 15 seconds. It was a long time. The fart, the steam,
the whole thing. I just couldn't look at him. I looked over at the
sound man, and he had taken off his head set. It was like that. And what's so
funny in England is that when someone passes
gas, they're all so polite. They're all, sort
of, looking away. [CLEARS THROAT] Like that, you know? It's not like in America
where it's like, dude? Was that you? [LAUGHTER] And you could hear a pin drop
after this titanic fart ended. And Rob was the first
one to break the silence. He said, hey Andre. You OK? [LAUGHTER] And I'll never forget. Andre didn't miss a beat. He goes, [DEEP VOICE]
I am now, boss. [LAUGHTER] And it just bought
the house down. I mean, it was just incredible. Yeah. First day with Andre. Yeah. JOHN: He called
everyone boss, right? CARY ELWES: Everyone
boss, which was hilarious for a guy who's
7 foot 5", you know? But he was just a sweetheart. He really, really was. I miss him to this day. JOHN: And you talk about, also,
that, you know, no accidents. You had prepared really hard
for no accidents to happen, but some did happen on set. CARY ELWES: Yes. JOHN: And one in
particular was egged on by Mr. Andre the Giant. CARY ELWES: Yes. Well, Andre couldn't
get around very easily while we were on location. We were filming in an area
called the Peak District, which was very well named. I'm sure you can Google
it if you don't know it. And it's very beautiful. And Rob wanted to shoot on the
top of a lot of these hills, so he could get the full
effect of the vista. And Andre couldn't fit in
any car, let alone the van that took the cast and
crew up to the set. So the production manager came
up to him and said, Andre, how do you get around
at home on your farm? And Andre said, [DEEP VOICE]
I drive an ATV, boss. Now, finding an ATV,
an all-terrain vehicle, in England, in
1986, was definitely a challenge, I think,
for the production. But I think we
found the only one. And again, you can Google it. There's a picture of him on it. It's wonderful. It's a three-wheeler--
a little red thing. It looks like a
tricycle under him. It's marvelous. And you've never seen
a giant move so fast. I mean, he was zooming
around in this thing. He loved it. And he would zoom
up to me on it. He would come up and go-- [MOTOR] [DEEP VOICE] Hey
boss, you like my toy? [LAUGHTER] I go, Andre, it's very nice. It looks like a lot of fun.
[DEEP VOICE] It is fun, you know? You want to try it? [LAUGHTER] I go, no, Andre,
I don't think so. [MOTOR] And he'd fly off again. [LAUGHTER] Second day. [MOTOR] [DEEP VOICE] Hey boss. You like my toy? [LAUGHTER] I'm like, yes, Andre. I've told you. It's lovely. It's wonderful. [DEEP VOICE] You want to try it? No, thank you. That's marvelous. I enjoy watching you on it. And this went on for a few days. And on the fourth
day, he rode up to me and he goes, [DEEP VOICE]
Boss, this toy is so much fun. You should try it. I go, Andre, really. He goes, [DEEP VOICE]
you know you want to. [LAUGHTER] So finally-- it was the point
where my hubris exceeded my aptitude-- I went,
OK, fine, Andre. Sure. And his bodyguard--
his bodyguard. Like he needed a bodyguard. [LAUGHTER] This guy had the
easiest job on the set. His bodyguard came
up to me and goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT] it's
very easy, governor. Yeah, it's just like my bike. Clutch right here. Brakes there. On off switch. Bob's your uncle. [LAUGHTER] JOHN: You do a great
English accent. CARY ELWES: Thank you. [LAUGHTER] Thank you for that. It was the best
training I've ever had for an all-terrain vehicle. And I got on this thing,
and I put it in into gear, and I lurched forward. And I didn't get more than
two feet and I went over rock. And I caught my left big
toe between the clutch pedal and the rock and it just-- [SNAP] --snapped like that. And I went, oh, great. Great. Great. I should not have
gotten on this thing. Why? Why, why, why? I was terrified at this
point, because I'm sweating, and I've got to shoot the scene
where I roll down the hill. Not me, but that scene
with-- thank goodness, not rolling down myself. But the scene with Buttercup on
the top, where I confront her about marrying Humperdinck. And the crew come running
up and I'll never forget it. The set nurse came over. She was so sweet. She goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT]
what happened? What happened? I said, well-- I
was trying to act like I was the Black Knight
in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." And I go, oh, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's just a scratch. It's nothing. Just a flesh wound. It's nothing. [LAUGHTER] And she touched my boot and
she goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT] does that hurt? I went, no, not much. No, it's fine. It's fine. And she goes,
[ENGLISH ACCENT] we'll need to take the boot off. I went, sure, sure. Go ahead. And it was agony taking
this thing off, right? And there was my
big toe, all swollen and pointing in the wrong
direction and everything, and she goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT]
I think it's broken. [LAUGHTER] And I said, no, no, it's not. It's just probably
sprained or something. She goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT] no. It's broken. [LAUGHTER] So now I'm really nervous. I'm thinking, what can I do? I go, is there anything
you can do to help me? She goes, [ENGLISH ACCENT]
well, usually, when you break something,
you go to the hospital. I go, no, we don't
have time for that. I've got to shoot this scene. Is there anything
you can do for me? And she said,
[ENGLISH ACCENT] well, I suppose I could make
a makeshift splint. I said, great. Great. Do that. Do that. And I think she grabbed a
couple of twigs or something and made a makeshift
splint right there. And I was terrified of telling
Rob, because I thought, he'll probably send me home. He'll probably
replace me, because I hadn't shot the sword
fight scene yet. And so I was-- like a twit,
I was telling everyone, don't tell Rob. I'll explain it to him. And don't worry. I can make it through it. And that's so crazy,
because on a film set, everyone's got a
walkie-talkie, you know? And so I get in the van
to go up to the set, and it was the
longest, slowest ride I've ever taken in my life. I think I overheard
the set nurse tell the AD in the back of
the van, [ENGLISH ACCENT] I think he fell on
his head as well. [LAUGHTER] We get to the set and
I hop out, and then put all my weight on that
foot and walk up to Rob like nothing's happened, right? And I'll never forget. Rob was there and he was
scratching his beard, and he goes, hey, Cary. How you doing? I go, I'm fine, Rob. How are you? And he goes, I'm good. How you doing? [LAUGHTER] And I just broke down. I said, Rob, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I should've told you. I was scared you'd let me go. I was fooling around on Andre's
ATV, and he goes, I know. Somebody came over the
walkie-talkie and said, you're gonna see Cary
can't walk too good. [LAUGHTER] I said, I'm so sorry, Rob. Really. He goes, don't worry about it. I'm not going to send you home. We'll work around
it if we have to. And he was such a mensch
about it, and he was so sweet. And luckily, the sword fight
wasn't until almost a month away, so I had a bit
of time for it to heal. It was a bit tender
for some of the scenes. There's no question, if
you look at the film again, you'll see I have a bit
of a light step in some of the sequences. But, yeah. We worked around it. And Peter Diamond,
who was training me, said, well, what we're
going to do, obviously, you don't get a break. We're going to work
on your arm movements and focus less on
your foot work. So in fact, it helped me become
a better left-handed sword fighter in a strange
way, because I was forced to really
focus on that. So it was a strange
blessing in disguise, although I wouldn't recommend it
if you're training for fencing. But yeah. Yeah. JOHN: That's amazing. You mentioned the scene with
Buttercup, Robin Wright. And we were talking. She was the last person
casted for the film. Is that right? CARY ELWES: I know. Which is incredible,
when you think about it. I think we were about two weeks
before starting the shoot, and we still didn't
have our Buttercup. And I think it was Bill Goldman
who met with her in New York, and she read for him. And he called Rob in
London, and said, get her. Get her right now. She's it. We're never going to find a
better Buttercup than her. And of course he was right. She's brilliant. And we were lucky to
get her, because she was on a soap opera
called "Santa Barbara," and we had to
negotiate with them to let her out of her contract. And she was brilliant
in the part. I mean, she's amazing. You can't think of anyone
else playing Buttercup now. JOHN: Well, tell us about
your first scene with her, first time meeting her. CARY ELWES: First
time meeting her, I was walking around
Shepperton Studios, where we shot the film, with Rob. He was showing me the sets. And we were walking back
to the production office, and I said to Rob, so have
we found Buttercup yet? We're getting pretty
close, you know? And he said, oh, man, have
we found the Buttercup. She's perfect. It's this girl. Her name's Robin Wright. You ever heard of her? I go, no. He goes, she does a
daytime soap opera, but don't let that fool you. She's amazing. And boy, you're
going to be so happy. She's the Buttercup. And right as he said that,
Robin walked up the steps and he goes, Cary,
there's Robin Wright. She's Buttercup, the girl you're
going to fall in love with. And I went-- and
Robin was so funny. She's like, oh, Rob, please. Like that. You know? And he nudged me. He goes, eh? Eh? [LAUGHTER] What'd I tell you? Eh? Like that. He was so funny. And she's so funny, Robin. She has a wonderful
sense of humor. And she has a
British stepfather, so she had a perfect
English accent, too. And she had the hardest
role, actually, really. Because she had to
play the straight man, or the straight woman,
in the whole story. She's, as Buttercup, she's
the victim in the story. She gets kidnapped, and she
has to marry Humperdinck, and she loses her love. And she played it note perfect. I mean, she was just fantastic. And of course now, everyone
knows how fantastic she is. I mean, I'm sure you guys
have watched "House of Cards." She's incredible, you know? We were lucky to get her. JOHN: Yeah. So now, you say
that-- in your book, you say that most of the cast
still gets a lot of people asking them, coming up in
public and saying, do this line, or say this, or do
something funny, right? So tell me about your most
awkward or funniest thing someone's ever done. Like, we have a
Westley-- or, sorry. We have a costume
going on right here-- Dread Pirate Roberts going on. CARY ELWES: Awesome. JOHN: But I'm sure
this isn't the most. CARY ELWES: That's fantastic. [LAUGHTER] You're a very brave man, sir. [LAUGHTER] Is it warm in that? [LAUGHTER] A bit, right? Yeah, I've met some incredible
fans over the years. I've met whole families,
who've-- you know, some have named their
kids after the characters, and people have gotten
married, of course, had the whole ceremony,
and serving peanuts, and shown me their
photographs of their wedding. And, you know, incredible. But I think the strangest
and funniest fan I ever met was a young lady who came up
to me, and she lifted her hair, and she turned around and
showed me the back of her neck. And she had "As
you wish" tattooed in beautiful calligraphy. Very nice. And I said, oh, that's nice. You know. And she goes, "It'd be even
nicer if you signed it." And she handed me a Sharpie. And I said, you want
me to sign your neck? And she goes, yeah. I go, what are you
going to do with that? She goes, I'm going
to have it tattooed. And I went, well, I
don't know about that. [LAUGHTER] I don't want to get a letter
from your dad, you know? And her mom was
standing right there, and she goes, no, no, no, no. Do it. Do it. [LAUGHTER] So somewhere in
the world, there's a young lady walking around
with my name tattooed on the back of her neck. [LAUGHTER] God bless her. JOHN: That's awesome. And so, in the book
as well, it contains a lot of extra
side notes, right? And this is really
an amazing insight, because you got the whole
cast on board with this. CARY ELWES: I know. I'm very blessed, really. I can't take full
credit for this book. Not only did I co-write
it with Joe Layden, but the whole cast, Rob,
Norman Lear, Bill Goldman, they all jumped on board
to be a part of it. So I'm very blessed. JOHN: So tell me, what is the
most amazing thing you found out from talking with the
cast, directors, writers. Like, what are some insights
that you found, really, that you didn't even know yet? CARY ELWES: Well, I
didn't know at the time why Wally Shawn was so nervous
when I was shooting with him. Because I remember
shooting-- I only had one scene with the guy, the
battle of wits scene, right? And I had a very
easy day that day, because all I did was sit there
and go, mm-hmm, ah-- like that. And I think I say, like,
then we're at an impasse, or whatever. JOHN: Did you bring
your iocaine powder? CARY ELWES: I did not. No, why? I'm sure you have
some, don't you? JOHN: Yes. CARY ELWES: Yeah. JOHN: One of those glasses. CARY ELWES: Oh, good. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: In all of them. CARY ELWES: Very good. Yeah, so-- but he had
reams of dialogue, this guy-- his
first day shooting, and he had all this
dialogue to do, and it was very hard dialogue. It was great dialogue. I mean, it was stuff like
Socrates, Aristotle, you know? Morons. Great stuff. Great stuff. But he was sweating. And I thought,
that's so strange. Here's Wallace Shawn,
arguably the smartest guy in the room wherever he
is, Fulbright scholar, lectures at Oxford
and Cambridge. Why is he sweating over
this little thing, you know? I knew him from "My
Dinner with Andre," and if you've seen
that film, wonderful. And I never understood it. But I just thought, OK. It's not particularly hot
that day, but he was sweating. I thought, well, that certainly
made me feel more at ease. I'm thinking, if Wally's
sweating, I've got it easy, you know? And I found out later,
when I wrote the book, that he said his
agent had told him that he wasn't the first
choice for Vizzini. That in fact the
producers wanted Danny DeVito instead of him. So Wally said he was haunted
by the ghost of Danny DeVito-- [LAUGHTER] --through the entire shoot. And he said, any
time he did a scene, he kept thinking how
Danny DeVito would do it. Which is crazy, because
it's inconceivable, right? That anyone else could
play that role, right? And I think he even said to
Rob, he goes, [MIMICKING] why'd you cast me in this film? I'm not even Sicilian. I'm a Jew from New York. And Rob said, but I love
the way you're doing it. You're perfect. But he was convinced
he was going to be sent-- he was
convinced he was going to be sent home and replaced
by Danny, which is so crazy. But anyway, needless
to say, I don't think he's with
that agent anymore. But he was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. JOHN: So when the film
released initially, you write that everyone
kind of went back to their lives pretty
quickly, right? Just a normal routine. CARY ELWES: Right. JOHN: Tell us about
why the movie took off. Because it wasn't
very initial, right? Kind of had a process. CARY ELWES: Well,
interestingly enough, John, when the film came out, it
wasn't as big of a box office success as we had hoped. And that was partly
due to the fact that the marketing department
had their work cut out for them. They didn't know how
to sell the picture. Was it a comedy? Was it a fairy tale? Was it a kid's movie? Was it an adult movie? Was it an action film? So they went with
this one sheet. It's a beautiful one sheet. It's sort of a Maxfield
Parrish type thing, with a picture of Peter
Falk reading to Fred Savage. And so that kind of made people
think it was a kid's movie. And we opened the same
week as a little film called "Fatal Attraction,"
which just swept the box office. So we were a little
saddened by that. The film, it did modestly
well, but it kind of went away. So we all, as you say, we all
tried to get on with our lives and put it behind us. And it wasn't until
about 10 years later that the VHS market
started taking off. And that's when folks started
renting it, and then buying it, and then giving it as gifts
to their family and friends. And I still meet people who
still have their VHS copy that they want me to sign. It's incredible. And I'll never forget. I was in Manhattan. I was at a restaurant, ordering
a hamburger or something. And the waitress said, how
do you want that cooked? And I said, medium rare. And she goes, as you wish. [LAUGHTER] I said, excuse me? [LAUGHTER] And she goes, you know. [LAUGHTER] Like that, right? And she winked at
me and walked away. And I thought,
that's so bizarre. I've never had anyone say
those three words to me before. And so this film that had been
mostly dead for almost a decade suddenly came back to life. It was extraordinary. And so it was a wonderful,
wonderful thing. I call it the gift
that keeps on giving, because now it's bigger than
we'd ever hoped it would be. Yeah. JOHN: Well, it's timeless. I mean, I'm definitely going
to be showing this to my kids. My wife is actually from Mexico. She just saw it
for the first time. And she was like,
this is amazing. CARY ELWES: Oh, great. JOHN: And I mean, it's
amazing, the film. And right now, what
we're going to do is actually take some
questions from the crowd. CARY ELWES: Great. MALE SPEAKER: Now, these have
been submitted from Googlers across our various offices. I'm going to kick it off with
one from Miriam, to start. She says, though we all know
and love you dearly as Westley, you've portrayed many
different types of characters throughout your career. Which has been your favorites? PS, love you, and
the bards, too. CARY ELWES: Oh, wow. Thank you. Well, this is definitely
my most cherished role. And that's really why I wrote
the book, because it gave me the career I have today, and
the wonderful life I have. And it was such a joyous
journey that I went on. And that's why I wanted
to write the book. So this was definitely
the most fun I ever had. And there's been
other movies that I've done that have been
fun, but nothing quite like this one, really. Yeah. MALE SPEAKER: And Vincent
also wanted to talk about one of your other iconic roles. Can you please tell us
more about your experiences as Robin Hood versus Westley? [LAUGHTER] What could Robin Hood
have learned from Westley? CARY ELWES: OK. Well, it was actually
thanks to "Princess Bride" that I got cast as Robin Hood,
because Mel Brooks had seen it, and obviously Mel and
Carl are great friends. And Rob grew up around Mel. And I'll never forget, I got a
call at home from Mel Brooks. And I picked up the
phone and he goes, [MIMICKING] hello,
it's Mel Brooks. I went, yeah right. [LAUGHTER] I thought someone was
playing a trick on me, and I hung up on him. And the phone rang again. I picked it up and he goes,
[MIMICKING] don't hang up. Don't hang up. It's really me. So it was amazing, amazing. Because I grew up with Mel
Brooks, like a lot of people. I'd seen all of his movies. And it was a real thrill for
me to get to work with him. And that was a lot of
fun to work on, a lot. A really joyous
experience as well. Yeah. Yeah. Great fun. JOHN: Who's a better fighter? "Robin Hood: Men in
Tights" or the pirate? [LAUGHS] CARY ELWES: You
mean, who would win? JOHN: Yeah? Who'd win a battle? Who'd win a battle, right? I think we all
want to know that. CARY ELWES: Oh, John. The old hypothetical
fictional characters question. JOHN: Next question. CARY ELWES: I don't know. I mean, yeah. I don't know. I can't answer that. MALE SPEAKER: And we have
one more here as well. So were there any anecdotes that
did not make it into the book that you wish
there was room for, as the editing
process marches on? CARY ELWES: No, I think
I covered it all, really. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] Pretty much. That was a question
I got from my editor when I was nearing the end. Yeah, no, I covered it all. I was very fortune. I didn't keep a diary or a
journal while we were shooting. And so I was a little
nervous after I hung up with the publishers at
Touchstone-- Simon & Schuster. Because I turned to
my wife and I said, OK, they want me
to write however number of pages and stuff. And I thought, I don't
know what I'm going to do, because I have maybe four or
five stories or something. But I can't remember
every day of shooting. And I went and had lunch
with Norman Lear, who produced the film,
and responsible for "All in the Family,"
and "Jeffersons," and "Maude," and all
those wonderful shows. And Norman was fantastic. He said, don't worry, Cary. I'm going to help you out. I'm going to give you the
call sheets from the movie. And the call sheets, for
those of you who don't know, is a work order that you get
as an actor or on the crew, and it tells you what your
call time is the next day, and what scenes you have
to shoot, and all of that. And he said, when you get
those, you're going to see them and you're going to
remember where you were. And that'll help
jog your memory. And a few days later, he sent
me this beautiful bound file of all the call sheets. And he was right. I opened the first one
and I looked at it, and I was right back
there-- after 27 years. It was wonderful. So thank you to Norman, because
without him, certainly I wouldn't be in the movie, and
I wouldn't be here sharing this book with you. JOHN: Yeah. Wow. MALE SPEAKER: We also had
a question from Todd Gage. Going back to the epic
sword fighting scene, can you tell us more about
the mechanics of the sword flying up in the
air and catching it? Like, did that take a lot
of practice to pull off? [LAUGHTER] Was it specifically in your
training, or how did that go? CARY ELWES: OK. The sword in the air
is actually Mandy. He catches the sword, I think. Isn't that right? JOHN: Well, there's one
where you do the flip. CARY ELWES: The flip
is a guy we brought in. OK, so here's what happened. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. No, that was me. [LAUGHTER] Here's what happened. When Bob Anderson and
Peter Diamond first showed the sword
fight to Rob, they did it at what's known
as half-speed, right? And it timed out at, like,
almost three minutes. And by the time Mandy and I-- by
the time we finished rehearsing it, we got it up to-- we'd
learned it really well. We showed it to Rob. And it was really fast. I mean, we were really moving. And so it timed out
at about a minute. And after we were done, we were
panting and covered in sweat. We walked up to Rob. We're like, what do you think? And he was scratching his beard
again, and he goes, that's it? [LAUGHTER] And we said, what do
you mean, that's it? We've been working on
this for months, you know? He goes, guys, I built
this beautiful set for you. I mean, look at it. The Cliffs of Insanity. I mean, you're here,
and you're going to be in here for a minute? We need longer than
that, you know? So we went back to
the drawing board, and we added another two
minutes to the fight. We had the whole thing on
the tower and the acrobat, we brought in this
wonderful gymnast who came in and did that for us. And so we went back and looked
at every single sword fight movie that we could
lay our hands on. "Scaramouche" was
one of the best ones. If you haven't seen
it, it's wonderful. Stewart Granger, Mel Ferrer. "Sea Hawk," "Black Pirate,"
"Robin Hood," everything we could lay our hands on. And we just studied it, studied
every single sword fight scene we could. And we came back and
added another two minutes. So that's what we did. Yeah. JOHN: Wow. OK, great. Well, thank you
so much for coming to Google, and a massive
round of applause. CARY ELWES: Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING]
